III Nephi 27:13-17Upon further reflection yesterday, I realized that His statements to various Nephites beginning with one to the Prophet Nephi just before His birth on earth and then during His personal ministry among the Nephites after His resurrection, provide us with equally cogent and convincing evidence of His divine role.
13 Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.
14 And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—
15 And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works.
16 And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world.
17 And he that endureth not unto the end, the same is he that is also hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence they can no more return, because of the justice of the Father.
that ran from 35a to 35t, shorter and more to the point!
If any of you happened to come to the same conclusion as I did, regarding adding the Savior's statements from III Nephi to the list given at the end of post 35t, please let me know by return e-mail (my address is found in the ending of each post) so I can give you credit for that in my next blogpost.
III Nephi 1:10 Now it came to pass that when Nephi, the son of Nephi, saw this wickedness of his people, his heart was exceedingly sorrowful.
11 And it came to pass that he went out and bowed himself down upon the earth, and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people, yea, those who were about to be destroyed because of their faith in the tradition of their fathers.
12 And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:
13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold,
the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets. (Highlighted Italics added for emphasis)
Painting: Carl Heinrich Bloch
Jesus Christ was Born
Just as Jesus, while still in his pre-mortal state, had told Nephi, son of Nephi, Jesus was born in Bethelehem the following day. Nephi and his people knew it because the signs that had been foretold by the prophet, Samuel the Lamanite, were seen by all, both the wicked and the righteous.
III Nephi 1:
15 And it came to pass that the words which came unto Nephi were fulfilled, according as they had been spoken; for behold, at the going down of the sun there was no darkness; and the people began to be astonished because there was no darkness when the night came.
16 And there were many, who had not believed the words of the prophets, who fell to the earth and became as if they were dead, for they knew that the great plan of destruction which they had laid for those who believed in the words of the prophets had been frustrated; for the sign which had been given was already at hand.
To me, and perhaps to you who have read the Book of III Nephi before, it appears that the Savior had a special love for the Nephites.
I think He manifested that special love when He, despite being on the verge of being born and taking on a mortal body and and being a member of the Godhead already, paid attention to the urgent need the Nephites had for hope, by manifesting to Nephi as shown in the scripture above that the signs would be shown that night, thus making it so their enemies would not be able to carry out their plans to kill all of the believers in the coming of Christ.
I'm sure that He doesn't favor one group of followers over another, even though it perhaps may seem so to some of us when we read of His praising the Nephite's exceptional faith when He first arrived in Central America soon after His resurrection. However, as you may remember, He told the Nephites after coming among them that He had not seen such faith as theirs shown by the Jews among whom He had ministered during His mortal life. He, the judge of all mankind knows that true faith and the actions that follow make a big difference.
I'll be back in about three days with more evidence of the realities of the eternal love of our Savior, Jesus the Christ._____________________
If you have any questions about what you have read or viewed in this post or in any previous posts of mine, or if you even have a curiosity about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and or its teachings, please e-mail me. I'm Neil and my e-mail address is: jneilmelva@gmail.com. If you contact me I'll get back to you just as soon as possible.I invite you to let your friends and relatives know about this blog if you think they would be interested. Please be advised that I also have two additional blogs. One is in Spanish: http://varsinaisella.blogspot.com/ and one is in Finnish: http://varsinaisesti.blogspot.com/ The content of each is translated from the English in this blog.
Neil Birch
